Today we’re going to introduce you to one of our favorite, go-to painting tools: contact paper. We absolutely LOVE contact paper here at the Painted Plate, because it lets get creative and crafty with the designs we want to bring to life on our pottery. Plus, it is simple and easy to use! Nothing beats that combination. So…

C O N T A C TP A P E R

The best way to describe contact paper is that it is a sticker you make for yourself. You can cut it out into any design you want and it’s great for keeping pieces of your pottery white and unpainted so you can go back and fill in the design later. It can even be used if you want a really dark background color, but also want to use lighter colors in your design. This tool is great for mugs, plates, bowls, and tiles. Let’s get started!

1: Find the piece of pottery you love and clean it with a damp sponge to give yourself a nice, clean painting surface. Doing this first gives the pottery some time to dry while you decide what design you want to paint. A dry surface means the contact paper will stick so much better.

2: Grab some contact paper from our supply drawers, a pair of scissors, and a pen. Take your time and decide what shapes or letters or pattern you want to paint. You can use any of our stencils, wood templates, or stamps so you don’t have to freehand something :)

3: Carefully draw/trace your design onto the contact paper and cut it out. Now you have your very own, handmade sticker! All you have to do is peel off the back of the sticker and carefully stick it onto your clean pottery surface.

4: Choose the color you like most and paint 4 solid coats onto your pottery. Use the blow dryer in between coats to speed up the drying time and make the coats nice and even.

5: After you’ve finished painting all 4 coats, it’s time to peel off the contact paper! Find a small pin in the supply drawers (or ask someone in a blue apron!), poke the pin into the center of the contact paper, and lift it away from the pottery. As you peel of the contact paper, you’ll uncover a nice white, unpainted surface.

6: When you’ve peeled off all the contact paper, you can use a toothpick or Q-tip to tidy up the edges in case a little paint seeped underneath the contact paper during painting.

And then you’re all finished! If you want, you can fill in the white space with another color using a fine tip brush or our paint pens, or you can leave it white. It’s all up to you as the artist :)